An amateur coach's musings on the game they play in Heaven

Defensive Pursuit and Line Integrity

This is a follow-up to my recent article on Defensive Organisation, focusing now on how the line should advance – and indeed it should! – and player roles once the ball has been passed from phase play. No matter what style of defence a team adopts, as soon as the ball is played defending players must move forward to deny the attacking team the time and space they’ve allowed themselves through depth and width. I demand that my team take an ATTACKING mentality when playing defence, as it’s an aggressive word to stress how we want to exert PRESSURE on the team in possession, to achieve our goal of winning the ball back. Conversely a team which takes a ‘defensive’ approach, and allows the opposition to come to them are giving their opponents all the initiative to do whatever they want, not to mention how hard it is to track and make a tackle while flat footed – or even retreating! (I’ll speak about my issues with ‘jockeying’ in a later article.)

The buzz phrase over the last few years has sought to focus teams on maintaining a ‘flat line’ defence. I try to avoid this as I do not want my team to take that phrase too literally. Indeed, if there are players out of alignment – whether ‘shooting up’ too early in advance of their team mates, or lagging behind creating a ‘dog leg’ in our defensive line – a clever attacking player will either attack the space or put someone into it. But the risks of playing absolutely flat can be almost as costly. Often I see teams which only have the full back in a position of depth when they yell “Up!” and come forward on defence, with the wings up flat with the other backs and no ‘sweeper’ in behind. What I demand of my players is that the players in front of the ball – at least three, more if there are more attackers in the space around the ball. This ‘wall’ is the only flat line I really care about because it provides pressure and offers no clear holes to attack. With the other players still coming up, but lagging behind ever so slightly, we have several DEFENSIVE LAYERS that can cover line breaks and kicks over the flattest and hardest pressing part of the line. Take note of this in the following screen captures from a game between Biarritz and Ulster:

Here we have a defensive line which is flat and 'attacking' the team in possession as they play the ball. Despite there being no attacking players in the 9-10 channel, the defending team still has A-B-C fringe defenders in place.

As the ball reaches the fly half, the greatest pressure is on the midfield channel.

The object here is to prevent any breach through the midfield and exert pressure on the next receiver, hopefully catching him well behind the gain line (almost fully 10m away!) Note how there are three defenders in this channel with one lagging behind slightly. He might have missed the cue, but the line integrity is already good and he can act as a cover defender / get in place for a steal for any big crash into that channel. It’s hard to spot, but this is a line of pursuit that I give to the scrum half. His main job is not to make a tackle or even get involved in the ruck, but to cover in case there is a line break or a chip / grubber. As this is where the next tackle contest is likely to occur, it’s also important for the scrum half to be there to communicate how his team should contest / defend it. Note how in the first picture there were NO blue players in the ruck at all …

This is a very noteworthy element to modern rugby – that not every tackle contest is actually being ‘contested.’ It’s a controversial point with older players, but often at this level you see just the tackler and one other defender go into many rucks. The object here is to only get involved in the contests where the potential to win is high. Too often, defensive teams at the amateur level do as their predecessors did and pile 4 or more players into a ruck that’s already lost, leaving fewer players to face the next attack. I stress to my team – and especially the scrum half, full back and centre(s) as defensive leaders – that we should only be contesting ones we might be able to win. What that leaves us for the next phase, as is the case in the above photo, is more defenders on their feet than attackers. It’s from this next phase that we hope to catch the attacking team behind their gain line and without enough support to win their own ball back. [Tactically speaking, Ulster might have been better off giving the forwards a short ball or chipping over deep for the centres as it would seem they’re about to be caught well behind where they started! The defence has all the initiative in this example.]

Contact is about to be made behind the gain line allowing other defenders to take up new positions, crucially, on the front-foot, while attacking players have to run backwards or come from the wide channel to help.

Here, Biarritz managed to stop Ulster 7-8m behind their original start point. With the tackle made and about to be contested for, that player behind the front group of three can make the call as to whether they want to contest – the Wallabies, I know, use the phrase “Flood it!” to get the fringe players to pile in and drive over the ball. Should an incredibly timely offload be made to a looping player, the wide defenders will not be too far forward to meet the challenge presented by the over-abundance of white players out there. [This would be a great call right now for Ulster as their crashing centre is in danger of turning over the ball!] What I mean by ‘not too far forward’ is that if they had come up flat with the three in front of the ball, they’d probably have to adjust to be onside, which would probably involve a bit of back pedalling given forward momentum of both teams. If the offload and cut out pass were to come, the attacking team would be able to take advantage of static / retreating defenders – not just their numerical advantage. And should the ball not be taken into contact, the left side of that front three would start a drift defence to shepherd the attackers toward the sideline.

Had the defending team been absolutely flat in this case, not only were the kick options available, but should the ball carrier step his man or simply run over him to breach the line, what happens next? This would present a golden opportunity in attack as the full back is no where in sight and the line-breaking centre would easily gain 20+ metres, hopefully linking up with his team mates funnelling through behind him. Without these layers, it’d probably end up being a 3 v 1 with the full back – and likely a try. With the layers in place, any potential option is covered. With regard to training this, a lot of game-related, full field practice is required and with plenty of numbers. Players have to be in constant communication with each other – as mentioned in the previous article – with regard to who needs to do what and when. This ‘front three’ pursuing group will change in a heart beat – meaning in these photos above, one of the outer backs would have to step up quickly to join the group already up, and some players from the right side would have to take a pursuit line to end up further across and deeper should the attacking team get really wide and penetrate. [This is why I love attacking the wide channel, as even if we get caught, the return phase will usually see backs against forwards in the open field!]

I’ll cover those specifics about who does what and when in front of the ball in the next article on defensive organisation.

[…] favours defending square and with coordination being more important than quickness. This ensures integrity of the line, without anyone rushing ahead of another or having to rely too heavily on a team mate. […]